Possible homicide under investigation in Palenville

PALENVILLE >> State police in Catskill are investigating a possible homicide that took place early Sunday afternoon.

State police Capt. Robert Nuzzo confirmed in an email that police were “investigating a suspicious death.”

Authorities said it happened at a house in the 800 block of Pennsylvania Avenue in the Greene County hamlet.

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State police in Catskill added the incident was first reported by the Greene County Emergency Services Office.

The Emergency Services Office said it received the call at approximately 12:35 p.m.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, state police said the investigation was ongoing and investigators had not yet entered the house. Further details were unavailable.

As of late Sunday afternoon, Pennsylvania Avenue in the vicinity of the 800 block remained closed to traffic as the investigation continued, according to state police.

According to the New York state Division of Criminal Justice Services, there were two murders in Greene County from 2009 to 2013.

According to agency statistics, the last homicide in Greene County happened early in 2013 when Scott A. Myer, of Greenville, was found dead at his home on 262 West Road on New Year’s Day.

Police said when they arrived they found Myer had been shot in the back of the head three times.

Maurice Pratt, 31, of Poughkeepsie, who authorities said was a drug dealer, was later arrested and charged with murder in Myer’s death. He was convicted in the killing and sentenced last May to 22 years to life in prison.

Myer had known Pratt for several years and heroin was a factor in that case, authorities said at the time.

Pennsylvania Avenue was the scene of a shooting in the early-morning hours of June 17, 2009, in which a man was killed and his wife seriously wounded. Authorities said at the time that Lucian “Luke” Haid, 28, and his wife, Taryn, were ambushed in their driveway when they returned to their home at 59 Pennsylvania Ave. by Robert Wilkinson, who shot them with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

The Haids had allowed Wilkinson to move into their home earlier that year when he needed a place to stay, but an argument between Luke Haid and Wilkinson the day before the shootings about property that had gone missing from the residence led to Haid telling Wilkinson not to return to the home, according to authorities. Wilkinson was caught later that morning by police in the Ulster County town of Esopus.

Wilkinson, formerly of Pine Plains, pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in Greene County Court in July 2010. He was sentenced in October of that year to 20 years to life in state prison.

Palenville is a hamlet of the town of Catskill that straddles the Ulster County line. It had a population of 1,037, according to the 2010 census.